International Racing

Yesterday at Keenland saw the running of the 2016 G.1 US$1,000,000 Shadwell Turf mile. The winner gained a direct entry into the Breeder's Cup Turf Mile. Betting on the race was wide open with seven horses at 8-1 and under. The robust filly Miss Temple City raced up on the pace and just held off the fast finish grey Ironicus.

 

Talk about stealing a race Oddy. She was very strong to the line though. Bold ride.

 

Yesterday one of most prestigious races in Australia was run in Melbourne, the Caulfield Cup over the 2400m journey. The event is not just a battle for the honour of a major G1 win, there was also the little matter of AU$3,000,000 up for grabs. In the 16 field line up, there were 12 were bred offshore. The filly Jameka went into the race as the 3-1 favourite and was attempting to become the first filly in more than a century to win the Oaks - Caulfield Cup double. Again the recent European arrivals ran well. Jameka comes from gate 14. She's in the blue with green bands.

 

Archipenko in the Summer Mile one of the best bets ive seen, remember it absolutely stinking, 5/1 out to 11/1, had to go down and put more on it. Was a jailcase beat in the Dubai Duty Free then went over and won the QEII Cup, Mick De Kock brings him over for a Group 2 with Cesare 6/4 fav

 

2009 Zabeel Mile Dubai. Archipenko.

 

Cyc; think I might treat myself to a Friday night (UK) all nighter to watch the Cox Plate on 'At The Races'. Might even treat myself to a punt in the big race; does Hartnell have a chance of defeating Winx - 5/2 available with one bookmaker with who I have an account.

 

Last preparation, he had no hope Kenny, but seems to have grown another leg this time in. For what it's worth, I'll to do a little write up on the race in a day or two. The race is on Saturday, so if you start on Friday, you'll be a better man than me.

 

Cyc; from memory when working and my ante post wagering was in full flow 'your' afternoon' was 'my' previous night. Used to back Melbourne Cup runners at outrageous prices as I could see results of 'trials' and lead up races from Australian racing websites then back ante post on UK bookies' sites immediately. Best year was when the Japanese horses finished first and second; cleaned up but 'wasted' a great part of my winnings on booze and wummin' (see your recent wisecrack on another thread!).

"All nighter" does not refer to an alcohol induced sleepless night (no booze since 24th August) and may be an incorrect description of my viewing. Possibly early night then 'up' at 03.00!!!!

PS; hope to remain 'dry' until Saturday 5th November (winter BBQ at my cousin's hoose) when I intend to fall a very long way off the wagon!

 

There is an existing thread The International Scene, which has an index of all international racing threads (not completely up to date) and is, currently, only accessible via the main index.

Hopefully this thread will be fairly active so I have added a link to the full index on the thread header above. This thread can be used for any international horse racing news but when a dedicated international horse racing thread is set up I will aim to add it to the full index. This index will continue to be "out of sight" and located via the main index but can now be located via this thread.

 

On a side issue, I'm amazed at just how poor the run of the mill prize money is in the UK. I had my hopes up for Squire yesterday, so checked out how he went. Nice to see him in the money again, but his reward was pitiful. He earned 443 pounds for finishing third.

Kempton paid four places in Squire's race. The winner in UK pounds received 2911, second 866, third 433 and fourth 216.

Today, 140ks up the road from Sydney, a race meeting was held at a place called Hawkesbury. It's hardly the centre of the world. Every race on the program held a total of 24,400 UK pounds in prize money. The pay out on all races (in UK pounds) was as follows. First 10,500, second 3655, third 1840, fourth 875, fifth 435, sixth 250, seventh 250, eighth 250, ninth 250, tenth 250.

Woodbine in Toronto also had a meeting. The money there is outstanding. Even the lowest rated Claiming race awarded UK 6625 to the winner. The best rated maiden winners of the day were given 22,000 and another maiden winner received 17500. Needless to say, the place money was bloody brilliant.

I read a report in the Telegraph, published in 2013, that stated The Racehorse Owners Association said for every 100 pounds spent on the horse, (excluding purchase price) the owner on average will receive just a 21 pound return on investment. According to the ROA, it costs around 20,000 pounds per annum to train an animal, if these numbers are right, there must be a lot of people struggling to make a living. The lack of decent prize money must hurt. The tote is the answer, but I don't know why it's not working over there. Living off what bookies are supplying is never going to cut it. They are not wholly to blame either. They can't lift standards to even the Australian level and stay solvent, so where does the problem lie? Is there a national tote in any of the countries or the UK in general? And if so, why has it failed?

 

Few questions Cyc:about racing in Australia.

How many:

• horses are in training?
• tracks?
• meetings per month?

 

Ron as far as I can tell, as of 2010 there were 360 clubs that conducted 2694 meetings over the course of year. So on average we're looking at 50 meetings per week.There were 16,112 foals produced that year.

According to Thoroughbred Breeders Australia, in the 2011-12 season 30,757 horses competed in 19,169 races on 358 tracks, for AU$437,363,490.

 

Cheers Cyc. i was going to try to compare with UK racing but at present I can't access the fixture list (or even the British Horse Racing site)

 

Surely Winx will run away with the COx Plate altho Hartnell has been in great form she will be extremely hard to beat

 

She'll certainly take some beating Wooly. This is some class field. Into the last ten minutes before the race....and it's killing me.

 

Just seen the race she killed Hartnell on the straight the race was on going round the corner but just extended as went away! What a horse!!